Tuesday, October 22, 2013

More Breaking News Abusers Of No Breaking News; KTVU and KGO-TV Worst of the Bunch

KTVU and KGO are hands-down the worst abuser of the "Breaking News" conundrum with Channel 2 the pack leader. It got so ridiculous last week during the BART negotiations that 2 ran a moronic "Breaking" at the top of the 11 PM hour only to see an empty lectern with a bank of microphones --NO breaking anything but we're used to this and it's become Channel 2 stock and an unfortunate one at that.

KGO is right behind 2 but it hasn't reached the top level. Both local newsies can be proud: they aren't alone in the biz but they have earned top honors here.

Nationally, CNN and Fox are so bad in this dept. that any legit "breaking news" has been unintentionally muddled with the rest of the slop. Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer should be poster children of the growing phenomenon. What a shame: a vaunted brand destroyed by TV juggernauts. Breaking News: There is NO breaking news. Again.

22 comments:

I really loathe this. What happened to real reporting? They are just people who read off teleprompters or have opinions. We are being controlled to care only about headlines. It's all about being FIRST for the biggest audience so they can make the most money. Disgusting. Capitalism at its worst if you ask me.

Not to long ago, KGO-TV was the gold standard for solid dependable news gathering. The new ABC 7 regime of Tracey Watkowski bottom feeds on anything and everything. Why you ask? Its a cheap, fast, fix, to stop the ratings bleed. Its a News Director default when they have no have no idea what they're doing. Don't believe me? Just ask staff trying to whether this storm.

...and KTVU has a new news director - and he brings all of that craziness to the airwaves. You would think that Cox would learn something and fire this guy... but they do not care about the audience... they care about the money... that's it - the money!

"Breaking News" should be a truly important story that is happening now or a MAJOR development to an important story: "This Breaking News.. where a major explosion has just occurred in the city of San Bruno!" or "This Breaking News.. talks between BART and its union's have failed and there will be no BART service tomorrow."

"Developing News" is what you call "Breaking News" after the first or at most second use of the breaking news phrase: "This Developing News out of Oakland where BART union negotiators are holding a press conference to tell us why the negotiations failed." or "This Developing News, Police have just released new details about the young Antioch girl kidnapped this afternoon and rescued by police this evening."

Everything else should be the phrase "we have a follow up to this story.. " or some similar language.

Blame cable news for changing this pretty standard definition and their misuse of the phrases coming down to local broadcasting.

Bernard (as Christine Craft is fond of calling him) would be great on radio today as the right wing echo machine's pathetic attempts to derail Obamacare, the anti union fervor in the BART strike and other issues such as NSA and drone strikes are front page news. Hopefully he can have a voice even via self produced podcasts when released. I'd listen.

Was the Lion of the Left moved? I thought he was in a federal prison in Texas. Perhaps Christine can chime in with Bernard's whereabouts. Is he really broadcasting a show via San Quentin radio? I'd tune in.

Bernie Ward went from a some times good guy to a total loser with his behavior. He did it to himself and is now paying the high price for his actions. No network in the country will ever hire him again. He is deadly to their future. Bernie, it's all over, get a job if you can doing anything.

"Breaking News" has lost its luster. Why the NDs at the TV stations keep using it is because they're all brain dead and think the audience is too.

Speaking of no respect for the audience: how about that gong show known as the BART/union presser on Monday night? No respect for the audience. People needed to know right away what was going on. Instead, it became a self-serving smooch fest. People were thanking everyone under the sun, mourning the deaths of the two BART employees, apologizing for inconveniencing the public.

Screw all of you. Someone should've taken control of the presser and addressed the important issue from the get-go: the BART strike was over and trains would be running at "x." But no, it was time to serve themselves. Great. And then this morning, it was Chuck Barris orchestrating "The Gong Show."

Bay Area voters: please don't be lulled into a false sense of comfort now that the BART strike is over. The pain is still there for everyone. Remember the long commutes. Gridlock on the freeways and bridges. Losing sleep over watching the news. Find that petition to end BART strikes and sign it.

The reason so many stations are no longer the 'powerhouses' that they used to be is that most young people (ages 35 and under), don't get their news from TV, radio, or even the newspapers anymore. They get it off of blogs, web sites, and from friends who text them info and send them links to web sites. TV and radio stations are trying to hold on, but with media consolidation, shrinking revenue shortages, nervous CEOs and shareholders, and a more diverse media than ever, they're swimming upstream!